Cell Block Five

An Iraqi Novel

Fadhil al-Azzawi
Translated by William M. Hutchins

A gripping novel of prison life in Iraq, loosely based on the author>'s own real experiences with Saddam>'s authoritarian regime.

The first Iraqi prison novel written, later made into a feature film in Syria.

Cell Block Five

An Iraqi Novel

Fadhil al-Azzawi
Translated by William M. Hutchins

A Publication of The American University in Cairo Press

Description

Being plucked from a Baghdad café and deposited in a cell block for political prisoners is a wakeup call for Aziz, the novel's hero and narrator, a young man who has been living on automatic pilot-as if he were a guest visiting his own life-and he is finally forced to come to terms with the flawed world we inhabit and shape. Although never charged with any offense, he must adjust to a lengthy stay in prison, where he is befriended by Salam the yard boss, Mun'im an idealistic university student with a beautiful sister named Salwa, Yusuf an idealist dispatched to the 'Swamp,' Salman an anarchist schoolteacher, and Mustafa an aged farmer who dreams of an alternative society. While these imprisoned revolutionaries teach Aziz to dream that an ideal city with his name on
it may lie just over the horizon, the police supervisor encourages him to think of a simple crime to which he can confess so he can be charged and eventually released.Based on the author's own incarceration in Iraq, Cell Block Five is a clear-headed, good-humored tribute to the prison's men-both the inmates and the guards-and an indictment of man's gratuitous inhumanity to man, pointing out that the transition from abused to abuser, tortured to torturer, can be an easy one.Written in 1971 and published outside Iraq in 1972, Cell Block Five-the first Iraqi prison novel-was later made into a feature film in Syria. Drawing the reader subtly into the political section of an Iraqi prison, this compelling story easily transcends cultural boundaries.

Cell Block Five

An Iraqi Novel

Fadhil al-Azzawi
Translated by William M. Hutchins

A Publication of The American University in Cairo Press

Author Information

Fadhil al-Azzawi was born in Kirkuk, Iraq, in 1940. He holds a PhD in cultural journalism from the University of Leipzig and is the author of several collections of poetry and novels, including The Last of the Angels (AUC Press, 2007). He has lived in Germany since 1977.

William M. Hutchins, professor in the philosophy and religion department at Appalachian State University, is the principal translator of Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy, and the translator of numerous other works of Arabic fiction.

Cell Block Five

An Iraqi Novel

Fadhil al-Azzawi
Translated by William M. Hutchins

A Publication of The American University in Cairo Press

Reviews and Awards

"This short, compact novel is sincere. It tells of a Kafkaesque situation and inhumane behaviour in humane, even beautiful, language." --Socialist Review

"A novel that seems on the surface largely harmless and yet rumbles with a deep and loud indictment."--Complete Review

"Cell Block Five is a wonderfully well-written novel; it is permeated with poetic feelings which convey something inimitable, musical, impalpable, and always unmistakably human."--Arab News